The Armstrong Whitworth A.W.23 was a prototype
bomber/transport
aircraft produced to
specification C.26/31 for the
British Air Ministry by
Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft. While it was not selected to meet this specification, it did form the basis of the later
Armstrong Whitworth Whitley aircraft.
Design and development
Specification C.26/31 required a dual-purpose bomber/transport aircraft for service with the
Royal Air Force (RAF), with the specification stressing the transport part of its role. The A.W.23 was designed by John Lloyd, chief designer of Armstrong Whitworth to meet this specification, competing with the
Handley Page H.P.51
The Handley Page H.P.51 was a monoplane conversion of the earlier, unsuccessful biplane bomber-transport aircraft, the Handley Page H.P.43. The Air Ministry ordered the production variant off the drawing board as the Handley Page H.P.54 Harro ...
and the
Bristol Bombay.
The A.W.23 was a low-wing twin-engine
monoplane, powered by two
Armstrong Siddeley Tiger
engines. It had a fabric covered braced steel
fuselage accommodating a large cabin to fulfil its primary transport role but with room for internal bomb racks under the cabin floor. The wings used a novel structure, patented by Armstrong Whitworth, of a massive light alloy box-
spar braced internally with steel tubes. This structure was extremely strong but required a thick wing section, increasing
drag
Drag or The Drag may refer to:
Places
* Drag, Norway, a village in Tysfjord municipality, Nordland, Norway
* ''Drág'', the Hungarian name for Dragu Commune in Sălaj County, Romania
* Drag (Austin, Texas), the portion of Guadalupe Street adj ...
. This wing structure was re-used in the
Armstrong Whitworth Whitley bomber. The A.W.23 was the first Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft to be fitted with a retractable
undercarriage
Undercarriage is the part of a moving vehicle that is underneath the main body of the vehicle. The term originally applied to this part of a horse-drawn carriage, and usage has since broadened to include:
*The landing gear of an aircraft.
*The ch ...
.
[Tapper 1988, pp. 198–200.]
A prototype, ''K3585'', was built first flying on 4 June 1935.
Owing to its unreliable Tiger engines, its delivery to the RAF for testing was delayed, with the Bombay being declared the winner of the specification. The prototype was given the civil registration ''G-AFRX'' in May 1939 being used for
inflight refuelling development by
Flight Refuelling Ltd who used it with the
Short Empire flying boat
A flying boat is a type of fixed-winged seaplane with a hull, allowing it to land on water. It differs from a floatplane in that a flying boat's fuselage is purpose-designed for floatation and contains a hull, while floatplanes rely on fusela ...
. It was used in February 1940 for the world's first night refuelling experiments. It was destroyed in a German bombing raid on Ford airfield in June 1940.
[Jackson p.324.]
Operators
*
Flight Refuelling Ltd
*
Royal Air Force
Specifications (A.W.23)
See also
References
Bibliography
*
*
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{{Armstrong Whitworth aircraft
Air refueling
A.W.23
1930s British bomber aircraft
Low-wing aircraft
Aircraft first flown in 1935
Twin piston-engined tractor aircraft